<
https://reneweconomy.com.au/picking-losers-choosing-nuclear-over-renewables-and-efficiency-will-make-climate-crisis-worse/>
"One of the world’s leading energy experts, and the man dubbed the “Einstein of
energy efficiency” has debunked the claims that nuclear energy is essential to
meet climate goals, saying that choosing nuclear over renewables and energy
efficiency will make the climate crisis worse.
“Carbon-free power is necessary but not sufficient; we also need cheap and
fast,” says Lovins, the co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute, now known
as RMI, and who has been advising governments and companies on energy
efficiency for half a century.
“We therefore need to count carbon and cost and speed. At actual market prices
and deployment speeds, new nuclear plants would save manyfold less carbon per
dollar and per year than cheaper, faster efficiency or modern renewables, thus
making climate change worse.
“The more urgent you think climate change is, the more vital it is to buy
cheap, fast, proven solutions—not costly, slow, speculative ones.”
The comments by Lovins, made in a keynote presentation at the annual Energy
Efficiency Summit in Sydney on Wednesday, are particularly relevant in
Australia, where one side of politics is threatening to stop wind, solar and
storage, and tear up Commonwealth contracts, and keep coal generators open
until such time that nuclear can be built.
The federal Coalition, and its conservative boosters in the media and so called
think tanks, argue that nuclear is the best way to get to net zero by 2050,
ignoring the pleas and warnings from climate scientists who say that unless
emissions cuts are accelerated, then the planet has little chance of keeping
average global warming below 2.0° or even 2.5°c."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
